1. Field of the Description
The present invention relates, in general, to methods and systems for controlling or managing the overall progression of passenger vehicles through an amusement park ride, and, more particularly, to methods and systems that use dynamic boundaries to define allowable rider inputs that modify vehicle speed and, in some cases, direction of movement along the intended ride path.
2. Relevant Background
Amusement park rides or simply “rides” have been around for more than a century and have been used to entertain millions of visitors to amusement parks, theme parks, carnivals, and fairs, typically by moving one or more riders in each vehicle along a track. For example, roller coasters move passengers rapidly along a track while some theme rides may include slow or show portions as well as fast or thrill portions. Park operators are continually searching for new ride designs to enhance the passenger's experience and to encourage repeated use of a ride, i.e., looking for something that makes the ride different or unique enough each time that a park visitor will take a ride many times.
Many rides allow the passenger or rider some control of their vehicle along the ride path. Many rides exist where the passenger vehicle is configured to allow a rider to provide input to rotate their vehicle to face any direction. However, the rider has no control over speed or the vehicle path as the vehicles are, for example, connected to a chain pulled along a track to move the vehicles along a ride path. In other words, no mechanism is provided for the rider to influence the movement of the vehicle along the ride path.
In other rides, the passenger can more fully control the vehicle's speed and direction along the ride path or track, e.g., go kart-type or bumper car-type rides. However, there is no mechanism for the ride operator to manage the vehicle spacing to ensure either throughput or show spacing. As a result, these rides do not meet the park operator's demands for rides with high and known throughput and for rides designed to place vehicles proximate to show elements at predefined show times such as when animatronics or display systems are operated to entertain passing passengers in the vehicles. In contrast to these rider-controlled rides, typical amusement park rides move passenger vehicles through a show space at programmed speeds and with programmed vehicle spacing. The speeds are used to provide a desired throughput and also to provide a desired show experience for the passengers, and the spacing is used to ensure passenger safety by avoiding collisions and also to provide a desired show experience (e.g., some level of individual experience for each vehicle in portions of the ride).